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Charting defensive stops

With the season upon us, I d like to turn to measuring some new stats. I have posted under Files a spreadsheet that I often print out for tracking some other

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, Oct 29, 2001

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With the season upon us, I'd like to turn to measuring some new
stats. I have posted under Files a spreadsheet that I often print
out for tracking some other defensive stats while watching a game.
Basically, who forces another guy to miss. Who forces a turnover but
doesn't get credit for it with a steal. Who fouls Shaq and puts him
to the line where he misses 2 foul shots. Who allows a made shot or
fouls a guy who makes 2 shots. Those kind of things. I did this for
probably 10 games last year and, though insightful, it is not enough
to tell much of a story yet.

Since my time is completely booked until 11/19, I'd like to encourage
other people out there to record these numbers from games. You can
do it from TV. I don't find it that hard, though it can be hard to
make them match up with official stats, which is why I do it with the
internet stats (usually Yahoo or Sportsline) running at the same time.

Defense is our biggest statistical hole right now. The players we
rate as top defenders often have no stats to support it. Stuart's
tracking of Iverson stuff in the Finals was a great piece of work,
but also a huge piece of work. I don't think we need to go to that
extent to do better than the NBA's official stats. Nor do I think
what's in my sheet captures near as much as what Stuart did, but it's
a start.

Give it a shot. I'd like to hear back. (I don't know how much the
zone rules may make this more difficult. Ugh.)

Dean Oliver
Journal of Basketball Studies

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